Monique Cousineau
Light in the Garden at the Atlanta Botanical Garden is British artist Bruce Munro’s sixth solo US exhibition. All summer long visitors can wander the paths throughout one of America’s most famous gardens to experience six immersive large-scale light-based installations created from hundreds of miles of optic fiber.
Bruce Munro sees light for the emotional qualities it can bring. He uses light to express feelings and ideas.
“At dusk, the Garden becomes this enchanting landscape that visitors just have to see to believe.” says Garden President & CEO Mary Pat Matheson.
Munro has brilliantly re-imagined four of his most famous installations and wisely adapted them to highlight the unique environment of the Botanical Garden in Atlanta.
Forest of Light
Photo © Atlanta Botanical Garden
Invigorated by the surroundings in the Storza Woods, the artist has masterfully recreated the Forest of Light, from one of his iconic works, Field of Light. It is the largest, most ambitious and perhaps most captivating installation featuring 30,000 flower-like stems made of glass spheres and lit from within.
Water Towers
Photo © Atlanta Botanical Garden
With the picturesque skyline of the city of Atlanta as the backdrop, Water-Towers bring a colorful touch to the garden. The 69 towers measuring about two meters tall are made from over 200 stacked water bottles and illuminated by optic fibers. The interactive towers change color in response to the music that emerges from them.
Beacon
Photo © Atlanta Botanical Garden
Beacon is built upon the superstructure of a geodesic dome. The first purpose of these domes, made by an independent manufacturer in England, was to use them as garden green houses. However, Munro has put his own artistic spin on the igloo-like shape to create a dynamic multicolored cupola.
The Water Towers and Beacon installations incorporate 7,050 recyclable water bottles.
Eden Blooms
Photos © Atlanta Botanical Garden
They might seem like futuristic flowers you would find in a SciFi series but for the Eden Blooms installation, the artist imagined exotic illuminated blooms emerging from the garden. This mixed media piece is made of optical fiber, steel, acrylic, sintered nylon and light.
As a North American premier, two pieces are shown for the first time in the US.
Swing Low suspended over the Fern Dell Fountain is a piece created with giant spheres encased in acrylic that are threaded with optical fiber and repeated to give the impression of a massive swinging pendulum.
Swing Low
Photo © Atlanta Botanical Garden
Three Degrees, is the focal point in the Fuqua Orchid Centre. “In this installation, Munro is influenced by the movement of curvaceous feminine forms, R&B and light spangling in to space. The essence of a performance is captured in the energetic, uplifting structural forms.”
Three Degrees
Photo © Atlanta Botanical Garden
For a little taste of what the exhibition feels like live, here is a short video of Bruce Munro’s Light in the Garden.
Bruce Munro’s six piece collection of Light in the Garden can be seen through October 3rd at the Atlanta Botanical Garden in Atlanta Georgia.
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